


Bridges

by viva_la_pluto



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, M/M, Romance, Team as Family, dailyr76, dailyreaper76, for the fic contest, jack and gabe try to become good dads, that's it thats the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-20 23:55:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14272329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viva_la_pluto/pseuds/viva_la_pluto
Summary: Jack knows that one of the reasons Overwatch first fell was because of the distance between all of the members. It grew too big, there was too little trust and too little knowledge. With the new Overwatch, he seeks to remedy that no matter how awkward it seems to be. And maybe, while he's at it, he can grow close to Gabe again.





	Bridges

**Author's Note:**

> First fic ever and I think it turned out decent. For the dailyreaper76 contest on tumblr, with the prompt "Old Dogs, New Tricks". Please enjoy!

If there’s one thing Jack Morrison isn’t, it’s sly. Maybe he was in the past, having had to be able to control such a wide spread organization like Overwatch, but the years in hiding and on the streets have left him with less than perfect social skills. 

Due to this, the members of the reformed Overwatch notice how strange it is when Jack, sans his mask (which would really be unnecessary at this point in time, after everyone knows who he is), decides to stand awkwardly against a wall when Hana and some of the others are playing the newest remake of Smash Brothers Party. 

They ignore it for the first while, saying the casual hellos, but leaving Jack alone to do whatever it is presumed dead old soldiers do. Brood, mayhaps? But he doesn’t leave. Slowly, he begins to make his way over to the group of what he’d consider as kids. 

Lucio catches Hana’s eye, bopping his head along to the music but tilting it ever so slightly for her to recognize the gesture as he has no idea what’s going on and does she? No, she doesn’t, but it’s not like the older soldier is doing anything. He’s just sitting and watching the screen along with the rest of them. 

People begin to trickle out after awhile- Brigitte has to work on fixing something up for Reinhardt, Lucio got inspired and needs to go work on his beats, Junkrat is… doing something or other, reasons like that. 

So it’s just Hana and the old soldier. 

She’s just kinda bopping around on one of her solo story files, tying up some loose ends and chilling. There’s a bit of a cough, and Jack speaks up for the first time, in his gruff voice. “I used to have one of those games myself,” he says. 

She tilts her head far back to look at him as he talks. Encouraged, Jack continues. “Smash Brothers Party 3. So I,” he pauses a little here, uncertain, “know a bit about how to play these fighting games.” 

Hana is a smart gal. She knows exactly what Jack is trying to do. And although the older soldier is rough and a little all business and no play, she does like him. So Hana indulges him, of course. 

“Oh really?” She twists her upper body to face him. “That’s pretty old-school, but I suppose they might be similar enough.” She turns away, grabbing the controller from beside her Brigitte left. “Here, let’s see if any of those gaming skills of yours managed to stay and start a two-player campaign!” 

“I don’t know,” Jack says, as he reaches forward to grab the controller, “I don’t think these new games are twice as hard as some of the old ones.” 

Hana laughs. “Think you can keep up with me?”

“I’m pretty certain this can’t be that hard.” 

“Just a little longer and we’ll see,” Hana says as the cutscene begins to play out. 

They end up playing for a few hours. It takes Jack a little while to lose some of the ever present tension but eventually, his button mashing skills from the old days make themselves known. To Hana’s surprise, he does a pretty decent job of keeping up with her. 

“Wow, you’re not half bad!”

“Thanks for the glowing praise.” 

Hana laughs a little, her feet resting on Jack’s lap, as she had migrated to the couch sometime in the hours they played for. “Really though, we should play more often! It was fun, right?” 

“...Yeah. That’d be nice.” 

They clean up, putting away the controls and the snacks that had appeared throughout the time, and head to dinner together. Jack nods when he sees Zenyatta, who, for an omnic with no moveable facial features, was doing great giving off the aura of a smile directed as Jack. 

Dinner finishes, and Jack heads out with a handful of juice boxes (alcohol is banned for him, after Ana and Angela teamed up to get him back to “peak physical (and mental) health”) to take a while to just destress from the day. 

“Saw you hanging out with Hana last night?” Gabe says, sitting down next to Jack to stare out at the horizon. 

“Rebecca, it’s not what you think,” Jack says dryly, as he passes him a cranberry juice box. 

Gabe smiles a little. “Really though, not seeing you outside of your room most days, or in the training areas, and you suddenly decide to join the kids with their video games? Did you at least do well, old man?” 

“Yeah, all those years of competing with you in the game made me halfway decent, apparently.” 

“Told you it would be worthwhile.” 

Jack gives a little laugh, remembering how insistent Gabe had been in teaching ‘poor video game-less farmer boy Jack’ how to play his favorite games. Jack had broken Gabe’s heart when Gabe visited his home in Indiana and realized Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley weren’t the most accurate representations of farm life. 

He eventually answered Gabe’s other question though. “I was... talking to Zenyatta,” he states. Gabe nods. Both of them see Zenyatta a few times a week, for distressing or trying to work through some problems. For two legally dead guys, it was difficult to find good aid for mental health. Zenyatta wasn’t perfect, but he was there and he was good. If Jack’s hair hadn’t already turned white, it probably would have when he saw the stark difference between the Genji he knew and the Genji with Zenyatta. Gabe was just proud one of his boys could get such a catch, even if he didn’t say that out loud. 

“What’d that funky little monk say?” Gabe takes a sip of his cranberry juice. 

“We were discussing Overwatch past, the strike team, you know? And I just got thinking... we used to know each other so well. We had each other’s backs. We learned how to make Ana’s cookies, we both know more about engineering and turrets than we did ever before meeting Torbjörn, and I can still hum the tune to all of Hasselhoff’s songs. 

And when Overwatch got,” he gestures with his hands here, nearly throwing his juice box off the cliff, “big, we lost that. I couldn’t get to know everyone, as much as I wanted to, and I let all this corruption sink in and I just couldn’t do any fucking thing about it or even see it and...” 

He quiets down as Gabe scoots a little closer, sliding his arm around the shoulders of Jack, squeezing lightly. Jack hesitates for a minute before leaning into Gabe. “...I don’t want that to happen again. I want to get to know the others if I’m going to be a part of this new Overwatch. I want to trust them.” 

There’s a silence as they just take comfort in the company of one another, and watch the setting sun fade the gold away from from the buildings of Watchpoint: Gibraltar. 

“I always liked this base.” Gabe says, breaking the silence. 

“Yeah.” Jack has calmed down, just feeling the heat coming from Gabriel, cooler than fondly remembered but warmer than last time. 

“I used to have a picture of you here in my office, remember?” 

Jack laughs, hand and fingers going up to run through his thinning hair. “I told you not to put that up. Or at least choose one with the both of us. Yeah, I remember.” 

“Sure, but you looked real cute in that one.” Gabe gives a little shoulder shrug. 

There’s a silence, as both of them try not to compare their relationship before with their relationship now. It’s not the same, and can’t be, even if both of them want it. There’s too much to go through, too many strong emotions and personal recoveries. Jack’s trying, though. He knows that Gabe knows what he wants, and he knows what Gabe wants, but both of them are older now, and arguably smarter, and they’ve chosen to take it slow.

Even if it’s too slow, in Jack’s opinion. 

“Do you mind if I join you?” He doesn’t say with what, but Jack knows. Gabe continues to stare out at the water, and Jack’s heart aches. His old Gabe wouldn’t have sounded quite so hesitant, and he really didn’t know how to feel about it, aside from wanting to give Gabe whoever he wanted to make him happy again. Which really hasn’t changed for decades. 

He knows Gabe wants to get close to McCree again, their relationship strained by the period of rampant attacks and attempted murders among other things. 

“Yeah, sure. I’ll let you know what I try next?” 

“Sounds good.” 

There’s a lull in the conversation. 

“How are your treatments with Angela going?” 

“Well my skin’s conforming to a few shades above dead, so there’s that going for me.”

The next hour passes in similar fashion, with conversation and pauses that are friendly and similar to their relationship in the past, but not quite. There’s still a little awkwardness between them, a rift that they keep trying to build bridges over, but bridges are never really a fix for when the ground was whole. 

They head back to their respective rooms, and time passes. Awkwardly, but sincerely, they begin to spend more time and learn about the hobbies and interests of the new members and reconnect with older members. Jack discussing the most recent updates to Mei’s scientific work, Gabe reconnecting with Pharah over some informal sparring, both of them sitting and talking to Ana again, both sipping and spilling tea. 

One memorable occasion is when Gabe decides he needs to do something about McCree. 

“I don’t know what to do,” Gabe mumbles, sprawled over the bed in his room. Jack has is scrolling through a screen, trying to come up with ideas to help Gabe out. 

“Well, he likes cowboys, right?”

Gabe snorts, “What, you gonna suggest we dress up like cowboys, talk all Western and watch those movies with him?” 

“...”

“Jack no.” 

The Tuesday after sees Gabe smuggling in and fixing up a pair of cowboy hats, and Jack sending a message off to McCree. 

_Soldier76_ : Are you available this afternoon? 

_McCree_ : Yeah, ain’t got no plans  
_McCree_ : This my turn for visit from the dads?

_Soldier76_ : what  
_Soldier76_ : just meet us in the main rec room 

_McCree_ : Gotcha 

Jack gives a thumbs up to Gabe, and then switches over to reading through cowboy slang. 

They meet McCree at the rec room, who absolutely loses it when he sees the ridiculous hats and belts they wear, quick fake belts Gabe made that just say their four letter first names, but still makes McCree laugh. Jack can see Gabe’s eyes light up, and a smile slip onto his face. 

As Jack continues to get the screen ready to watch the film, Gabe speaks up. “Howdy, partner. Jackie and I wanted give you a hog-killin’ time and become afly at your passions.” Jack can see Gabe pause to try to remember the next words. “To acknowledge the corn, I’ve fucked up- shit, I mean I’ve made some addle-headed mistakes, been flat out and dealt with some gammon, and it wasn’t fair to you, Jesse. You deserved better than me, and I know I can’t solve it with this campy dress up, but I’d like to try.” 

McCree gives a lopsided smile, and Jack politely turns his head away from the tearing up eyes of his husband (ex-husband? Rekindling the fire with husband?) and his pseudo-son. He hears Jesse say something about not quite understanding what Gabe said, but he gets the gist. There’s a few moments of a thump of a hug between the two, and low murmuring to one another between Jesse and Gabe, and Jack just smiles. 

Eventually, they break apart and Jesse comes over to Jack with an unabashed smile. “Always knew you were a big fan of those old fashioned cowboy movies.” 

Jack returns the smile, a little smaller, but it’s there. “Only since I’ve met you.” He gets pulled into a hug, rim of the cowboy hat awkwardly digging into Jesse’s face he thinks, but he returns the hug after a moment. He can see Gabe standing there with a soft smile looking at the both of them, and he gives Gabe a thumbs up. Ridiculous and vaguely embarrassing cowboy fashion or not, it worked. 

The next few weeks, months, continue in similar fashion. They spend time with Brigitte, who insists they come in disguise to help out the abandoned cats at the shelter (and once Jack’s heart melts, Gabe has no choice but to follow along), they let Lena gush on about her girlfriend and they help her choose a gift (or a few, as Gabe is a bit of a romantic) to send to Emily, and together, they end up spending some time chilling with Bastion. That one was a little strange and a bit scary, as they had spent many years fighting against omnics with the same model. But it was nice. They just took their juice boxes and laid around outside. 

This inevitably leads to both of them wondering what they could do for each other. 

Gabe is the first to explain his trouble and drag in Zenyatta, trying to explain out his thoughts while pacing. “Jack is a good man, and he grew up on a farm. He’s always liked plants and fruits and vegetables, used to be real good in the wilderness and finding edible plants and stuff when we were roughing it back during the Crisis. In the early days, he liked to keep his office with full with those little plants in pots and stuff and he always talked about having a garden like his Mom did at home when we’d be able to retire and buy some house to settle down in,” he rambles. 

Zenyatta takes pity on him, and asks the question to grant Gabe some reprieve. “Would you like to take up a corner of the garden? There’s a few spots that Genji and I have not yet gotten to, and so there’s plenty of room there if you’d like to grow something for Jack.” 

Gabe lets out a sigh of poorly disguised relief. He’s still not quite certain of his place in the organization, uncertain of whether or not these individuals can accept him. He certainly wouldn’t have trusted himself to be back in Overwatch. 

He begins his research immediately, looking up what sorts of plants can grow on Gibraltar. Tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries... it’ll be predominantly red, but it’ll work. Not exactly what Jack grew up with in the corn filled fields of his Indiana farm, but Gabe knows for certain Jack loves strawberries and raspberries. 

No one really bothers Zenyatta and Genji when they’re out gardening together, except for Bastion. Once Zenyatta explains the secret to them, they just beep happily and occasionally help Gabe out by pointing out places that look wrong or are being eating a lot by bugs and the such. 

So yeah, he keeps it quiet and on the down low. Even though sometimes when his fucking tomatoes are trying to take over the entire garden and just keep growing and he gets frustrated because the strawberries need a little sun loving as well, he continues to do his work for a while each day. It’s not hard to keep a secret from Jack, for all that they’ve grown closer over the last while and are difficult to separate, Jack has been a little busy as of late as well.

This would be due to the fact that Jack is also working on learning how to do something for Gabe. Gabe is equally as difficult to think of something to do for, and Jack whines to Ana about it, head in his arms. 

“I don’t know what to do, Ana, I’ve been trying to think of things I could do but Gabe is good at basically everything himself? I thought of cooking a meal, but Gabe is a better cook than I am. And I’m pretty sure my tastebuds are as dead as my sight after those years of…” Really nothing but alcohol and scraps, but he doesn’t mention that outloud. 

“He likes those costumes of his, doesn’t he?”

“But he’s so good at them himself! He doesn’t need whatever monstrosity I attempt to make.” 

“You of all people should know that Gabe would care more about the fact that you tried to learn something he’s passionate about. If anything, your ineptitude will endear it more to him. You saw how he was with Fareeha’s drawings and tissue paper fashion items.” 

“Yeah, I guess,” Jack lifts his head a little to stare at his calloused, rough hands. “But I have big meaty paws, and how am I supposed to learn to make something without the master of sewing to help me?” 

Ana rolls her eyes at Jack. “I’m sure you, me and Athena can figure something out together. Now let’s try to come up with something you might think he’d like.” 

Jack ends up choosing a beanie. Gabe lost his in the explosion, and he knows that it meant a lot to Gabe. Gabe had it for years, made from his abuela, and even though it got a little threadbare near the end, he still wore it often. Jack can’t replace it, and it certainly won’t be as nice, but Jack hopes that it’ll still mean something to Gabe. 

It’s… a lot of work. With his terrible eyesight and fumbling fingers, as well as need for perfectionism in his work for Gabe, he restarts many times. Eventually, Ana just tells him to suck it up or else he’ll never get it done. And so he does. He’s thankful that Gabe has found himself some other stuff to do in the meantime, so he always gets a while to work on it without Gabe knowing. 

There’s something nice about having a secret from someone when it has to do with their happiness. It’s nothing like the heavy, dark weight that haunted the both of them near the end of Overwatch. And really, it kinda brings them closer together, closer than they have been since reconciling. 

Gabe is the first to show Jack, because those tomatoes just won’t stop growing. He has to do something with them, and rather than try to come up with some stupid excuse for why he suddenly has bowls of tomatoes, he figures it’s easier to tell Jack. So one day in the warm afternoon, he leads Jack out to the garden. He had set up baskets with some of the fruits he grew beforehand, so him and Jack could eat some together. 

He eyes the basket, noting the loss of some raspberries, turning his head to spot Zenyatta and Genji, the latter of whom gives Gabe a red stained thumbs up. Gabe just sighs and turns back to Jack, who is staring at the garden in confusion. 

“Did you grow these?” He asks. 

Gabe goes to explain himself, “I know you like all those homegrown fruits, Jackie, and I wanted to show you how much you meant to me?” Maybe it’s not as eloquent as he planned. More accurately, it’s certainly not as eloquent as he planned. But it works, and Jack’s confused expression just melts into this bright smile. Gabe thinks if he didn’t already love this boy scout, he would have fallen right now. 

Jack turns to him, and a little uncharacteristically, the complete opposite of the Soldier persona he hid behind for years, grabs Gabe into a tight embrace. Gabe doesn’t need to hear the thoughts of gratitude out loud, but Jack says them anyway as he examines the plants. 

“I can’t believe you- fuck, how long have you been growing them? How did I not notice at all?” Jack’s talking and talking and maybe tearing up a little but that won’t do, so Gabe just shoves a strawberry in Jack’s mouth. Jack stops, stares cross eyed down at the strawberry and laughs, pulling Gabe close to give him a chaste kiss on the mouth. 

They spend that afternoon out in the garden, popping raspberries and strawberries and tomatoes in their mouths, laughing like they’re many years younger. 

Gabe’s gift comes later. It’s lopsided and some rows are pulled so much tighter than others and when Jack looks at it for too long, he wants to tear it apart and start all over. But it’s done at the perfect time. 

Gabe’s appointments with Angela have been working, for the most part. There’s bad days though. Angela calls Jack down, and he arrives to see Gabe curled up on a cot, face smoking as his hands try to cover up patches of darkened or missing skin. 

Gabe only looks up to see Jack’s back leaving, and his fingers dig in deeper as he tries to breathe through the pain of the attempts to fix him, and breathe through the thought of Jack leaving him again to suffer and burn and _hurt-_

Gabe barely feels the rough hands move his own hands from digging into his scalp, but he can feel the soft, plush texture of something covering his head. He can feel the hand rubbing his shoulder, pulling Gabe close to lean against the warm being under him. He can hear the faintest wisps of a gravelly old voice humming some old tune. Slowly, he begins to feel better. 

Of course Jack didn’t leave him. It’s different now, with this new Overwatch, and it’s what they’ve been working towards on the last few months. There’s trust filling in the gaps of the rift that forced them apart. So he just leans into the embrace feeling the rumbles of Jack’s chest rise up and down with his breaths as they wait there, together. Never apart like they once were again. And Gabe smiles. 

Even if the hat he’s wearing feels a lot tighter in some sections than others.

**Author's Note:**

> The cowboy slang was taken from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-slang/. I had the general idea and was in the middle of writing this for two, three weeks, but it wasn't working out. So I decided to start over yesterday, which maybe wasn't the smartest idea but I like how this turned out much better than what I was working on previously. [Tumblr.](https://coatrackincrocs.tumblr.com)


End file.
